Not just a hobby, it's a way of Life

You might recall that Ragged and I started our very own little Sock Yarn Unclub back in April at Greencastle. At that time, I had picked Knitting Notions (I had planned them as a pick at some point, and we being smart decided any money saved on shipping could be spent on yarn, so they were the April choice)

Now it’s June, and time for Miss Ragged to make her pick – Black Bunny Fibers. We both ordered our selections last week, and I got mine today.

Black Bunny Fibers Merino in Patchwork

It’s a tough color to capture, but I tried.

Hello Gorgeous

You just don't have a bad side, do you?

Out of the wrapper

Love this. Love it. It’s more beautiful than the picture was, and more beautiful than my pictures are. My own goal for the SYU was to try to get colors that I’m not going to dye myself, to really experience that dyer’s sense of color. And I hit that mark with this one.

Since the whole goal of this unclub was to try different yarns we had been coveting, we’re trying to come up with patterns so we will use them soon. I haven’t entirely settled on a pattern for the KN, and of course the excitement of new yarn clouds one’s judgment. Stay tuned to see which one finds a calling first.

Why did I abandon them? I think it was due to a new Interweave Knits pattern for the Ravelympics. They’re perfectly fine socks, and deserve to be finished. My sock needles were empty for over a week, so things were getting desperate.

Something else we’ve been having a lot of lately, other than knitting projects, is storms. It’s just about a daily occurrence, which has been rough on the planting schedule, but does make for some beautiful clouds:

This is kind of my pattern, but kind of not. I saw these socks on Ravelry, with the pattern being for sale. I kept meaning to buy it, but I didn’t. I started these socks during our trip, and didn’t want to download the pattern then. So I just plotted it out on my own. Then I had a crisis of conscious. I can’t truthfully add these socks to that project, because I didn’t buy the pattern. But even if I bought the pattern (in homage to the designer – if it wasn’t for whomever he or she may be, I never would have made these), I wouldn’t feel right about adding the socks then, because clearly I didn’t make them from the pattern (looking at it again, it’s not an exact match). Argh. I don’t plan to offer the pattern, of course, so there’s not that concern, but I still feel like I’m on the wrong side of Karma. Shoot.

Okay, moving on from one crisis of conscious to another, I added more roving to the ever-growing stash.

Juliespins alpaca/silk/merino in Great Grape, rambouillet in Stormy Seas

The one on the left actually is the ‘surprise’ color I ordered. It was completely random what color you might receive, and purple came to me. Isn’t that a happy story? I think so.

I’ve been working on getting the kilo whittled down (you remember correctly Knitterbunny, it was indeed the Great Bundle o’ Psychedelic Roving of 2007), so I can start on all of these lovelies I’ve been collecting. I’ve joined the Tour de Fleece for this year, and hope to be done with the Parrots by that time, so I can start on all new stuff.

Other projects have included beginning to learn Flash. As in, very tiny baby steps. I made a purple ball bounce on a lavender screen. You’re shocked, I know. Next, I will be adding Photoshop into the mix, and who knows what other magical multimedia marvels.

The long abandoned html class I *cough*signedupforthreeyearsago*cough* is getting a good working over. I hope to be done with it, or very close, by the end of this month. It’s a repeat of most of the things I learned in my hypermedia course, but there’s some new stuff, too. Then, I’ll be signing up for the advanced class, and actually finishing this year. Yay me!

What else has been going on? Napping.

Lots of sleeping.

And some wide-awakes.

Yes, I know it's probably too dark, but he's cute and I didn't want to blind him

It occured to me I haven’t posted since last Monday. Yup, we’re still tired. Ramblin has nifty wildlife pics to post. I got nuttin’. Oh sure, I finished the socks last night, but I didn’t take a picture.

What I have been up to is starting my second-to-last class for the master’s (the last one will start on the 24th), and restarted working on that html class from way back when at the college where I work (there’s college-master’s and college-work, yeah, it gets confusing). Note to any of my students reading this: do as I say, not as I do. Because I’m the advisor, that’s why.

I am so glad I found the technology option for this degree. I shudder to think that I almost became mired in the English and never would have finished it. That would have been an expensive dead end. It’s too bad that it could be years before it makes a difference, if ever. That’s why I’m picking up the tech classes at my work-college.

I’ll try to have some sort of pictures to post soon. Or I’ll start typing in html code. That’s about it for entertainment.

Yes, my lazy hide loaded a few pictures onto the two posts below, just so you can be sure I was really there. I confess that in the presence of excellent photographers, I totally lazed on the job. Rest assured, there are far more wonderful pictures of our trip than just what you see here.

So, what else have I been up to?

Well, there’s this:

Fiber dyed on 5-23-09

And this:

Bobbin #5 of Parrots roving

Which is barely making a dent in this:

Hopefully half a kilo of Parrots roving

I say ‘hopefully’ because at four bobbins spun and plyed, I still wasn’t half done with the original kilo. I’m up to about half the bobbin full, which should push it past the halfway point. I only just now realize this would mean I still have 4 1/2 bobbins to spin. Oh dear.